It’s time to bring back terracing, the noise and the crowds.

Terracing was banned from Britain as a result of the Taylor report following the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989 when 96 Liverpool fans died.

I watched that happen live on TV and it was truly horrific, many reasons have been put forward, firstly terracing as the blame, the Sun newspaper blamed drunk Liverpool fans (and since that day the Sun doesn’t sell in the Liverpool area) others blame the Police for opening the gates and letting the Liverpool fans in on mass, but I believe what caused the disaster was the cages that stopped the fans spilling onto the pitch.

And that was down to the FA, the same people who have allowed the ban to be enforced.

I remember that year, George Graham refused to play Wimbledon in midweek after the game as a mark of respect and the FA threatened to dock Arsenal 2 points, and boy we needed them, fortunately we ended up winning the league that year anyway and that was why our team took flowers onto the pitch, to say how sorry we all were.

So as a result the knee jerk reaction from the government was to ban terracing, not to sort out the real problem, ironically one of the few places where they still ignore the seating rule is the Kop at Liverpool and at Goodison park, where they all stand, what could be more dangeros than standing eh? Ask the stewards at Arsenal, it’s a heinous crime.

They still have terracing in Germany, they still have terracing in the lower leagues and they still have terracing at Rugby games, so why aren’t we allowed it in the Premier league??? If Arsenal allowed it in the North and South stands we could have a 90,000 capacity and a real atmosphere, we could have a section where you could buy tickets on the day and it would be safe, there is no evidence anywhere in world spectator sports that terracing is dangerous, so why on earth don’t the premier league clubs tell the government we want it re introduced?

I grew up on the terraces and never once saw anyone hurt on them, I’ve seen plenty of accidents in the seating sections though.

Maybe it’s because the stewards would all be unemployed as they would have nothing to do, save politely showing you to your standing area. It would cost nothing to convert and the benefits would be immense, I can’t see how legally you can have one law for the premier league, another rule for the Germans and another one for the lower leagues, it’s discrimination.

So let’s bring back terracing, at this time of the year at least we could all stay nice and warm.

Still no news on Arshavin but we have a few hours left and I still think it will happen, it’s no use saying we have no money as even if you take out the prize money and the transfer budget we had, we still got enough from the sell ons of Bentley, Diarra and Muamba, plus the transfers of Gilberto and Hoyte, and that doesn’t include the saved salaries of Hleb and Lehmann.

So please stop saying we are skint, if we can’t afford it from that little lot then we should never have moved in the first place, it was a disaster if we still have no money.

I watched the West Ham game again last night on Arsenal TV and there are positives we can take from the match, well two anyway, the first is we still have time to get rid of Eboue and the second is we still have time to buy the man of the match, Mathew Upson, and they were the only things we can take from that game.

5 points behind the Chavs and Villa and plenty of games left but we need to buy three players, a defender, a defensive midfielder and a creator, so for me we need Upson, Arshavin and we need to bring back the Flamster, all are affordable and all are acheivable, so stop telling us how much you believe in this team, because we don’t and you still have time. It’s time to say you believe in us and get your cheque book out.

There, no moans, just advice, we can still qualify and win some trophies, if we don’t buy, we will do none of the above and we’ll be going into the summer with Wenger saying his team are older and wiser and spend nothing in the summer as it’s too expensive.

We need PHW to stop saying it won’t be a disaster if we don’t qualify for ECL football, because it will, a horrible disaster, and DD needs to stop crowing about why he left Arsenal, because he didn’t quit, he was quitted, tin tacked and lobbed out.

Please, please buy now Arsene, this team are not good enough. Yes I believe that we can overtake Villa and the Chavs but we can’t rely on that.

Today is last chance saloon, don’t blow it.

Tomorrow I talk about Cardiff, if of course that game is not cancelled, if we sign no one today, I’ll bet he blames the snow!

Have a great day Grovers, I’m in my office and I’m the only one that made it, true grit!

2,254 Responses to “It’s time to bring back terracing, the noise and the crowds.”

Did you listen to the DD interview Geoff? He wasn’t crowing about leaving Arsenal and he talked a lot of sense about football in general. The downturn in Arsenal’s fortunes can be traced back to the time when he left and we lost players like Vieira. Our current situation cannot be attributed solely to DD’s departure, we all know the cost of buiilding the Emirates has had a major effect, but I believe that if he were still involved in the club we would be in a better position than we currently are…..

Computer was out of action for a month, but to be honest was just done going over the same old grround…have been so fed up with the same shit week in week out….just don’t get why AW has not been able to see what we all see. Its a shame, and not trying to be a downer, im trying to find the positives but its tough bro….just feel completly fed up and that line from the post that says “may as well support Microsoft/coca cola”…i find that a really true line……just starting to feel more than a little shat on.

terraces at Eden Park in Auckland, always great atmosphere…..no trouble, relaxed vibe…….no reason we cant bring terraced sections back into the prem…..would’nt take much to tear a few seats up and let a hundred people stand……..nah,,,,never gonna happen is it.

Wenger’s not the one who is holding up the AA transfer – you can see he is as fed up as the rest of us with the saga. He will sign today – what is more interesting is …..are there any surprise signings on the cards – you know 15 year olds with a history of injuries 😉

Morning all,
I made it into work (I live 5 minutes drive from work so I had no excuse!) however there’s a blizzard whipping up outside but it better not be Wenger’s excuse for the Arse Shavings deal falling through.
I sincerely hope we get the Russky in, even my 9 year old boy was saying the bleedin’ obvious(without any prompting from me) that PHW and his acolytes can’t understand namely: “If we get a star in other big players will want to come to us also ‘cos we’ve only got Cesc and Robin at the moment”.
So that’s it – tell PHW to sod off and get Chary junior in – he will surely do better.

Sky Sports News’ Bryan Swanson has the day’s first news of Andre Arshavin. He has been spotted in Hertfordshire close to Arsenal’s London Colney training ground, fueling speculation he is closing in on a move to the Gunners. Sky Bet are pretty sure he will be an Arsenal player by the end of the day, rating him 1/8 to move to the Emirates.

ON A SAD NOTE FOR ALL AFRICAN EPL FANS…..

GTV a company that has been airing the Premier League to Africa wound up on Friday last week.

They bought 80% of the rights to air EPL with DSTV getting 20% only.

Can anyone out there buy these rights and make good money for the remaining 2 years.

cheers Geoff, good to be back…but i was always watching on…you never really leave Le Grove…again…..that line about supporting Coca cola….I think thats one of the best lines ever typed on Le Grove. Nice to know im not the only one going nuts.

Thanks Geoff, I agree about the Wembley thing – complete madness…Only time will tell if a billionaire benefactor is the answer to our ability to compete in the future. It may be inevitable. It is obvious that there is not harmony at board level – or at least they’ve outed those who don’t agree with the direction they’re taking, but do you or anyone really know what the board’s true aims are?

Bringing back terracing would not change the atmosphere at British grounds and ignores the multitude of reasons behind the decline in football atmosphere within british football; it’s one of them but this alone is not the cause.

Also, terracing has not been ‘banned’ in Britain. Many lower league clubs still have terraced areas, the Taylor report recommended that all top flight clubs should have all seated stadia. It was actually to the huge benefit of the club and the authorities to do this as there are many public order reasons for doing so. The Police also were very supportive as it’s all but erradicated their hefty overtime bill for policing footballing events.

It’s not a case of money that clubs won’t put terracing back in, think about it with your grey cells for a moment and imagine that AFC have the home address and contact details of almost every fan i nthe stadium and access to their credit card details as well. Lovely. For them.

We rejected the ID scheme only to let the Taylor report bulldoze us into it while the filth got away scott free by letting 96 die at Hillsborough. When will they be bought to justice?

Wants the point of all seaters these days? I sit by the corner flag on the left of what would be the North Bank and I must spend a good 3/4s of the game standing up. Even the stewards have given up moaning.

It was a smart move by Arshavin to come to England last night. I can’t see how he made that decision alone though. I’m sure he can afford to charter a private jet but even so I can’t believe he would be willing to pay out for that on the off chance that Arsenal might sign him.

My guess would be that Arsenal asked him to come because of the weather & because they fear someone else hijacking the deal. I wonder if they promised him the deal would happen but that they’ll try & push Zenit right to the last few minutes in the hope they’ll cave in on the price.

morning grovers! i’m interested in the terracing thing because clearly it’s logical to bring it back – and would make going to the game a lot more enjoyable – and cheaper as well. in these recessionary times, some low cost terrace tickets would hit the spot nicely wouldn’t it?

9.47 Latest news on Arshavin. Sky Sports News reports he is heading back to a London airport with sources close to Arsenal claiming the Gunners are not prepared to meet Zenit’s terms. Sky Bet have moved quickly to reflect this latest development with him now rated as 6/4 to move to the Emirates.

why would he come all the way and not know he has already done the deal, surely he came did his medical and nowheadign abck to russia to gather his belongings, surely this deal has alreayd been done, what 20 minutes in london than head home, strange? sky have been wrong for past 4 weeks, i am been positive and sayign the deal is done, he looks happy in picture

Latest news on Arshavin. Sky Sports News reports he is heading back to a London airport with sources close to Arsenal claiming the Gunners are not prepared to meet Zenit’s terms. Sky Bet have moved quickly to reflect this latest development with him now rated as 6/4 to move to the Emirates

My view is that the real reason for banning the terraces was not due to safety, but to price out the mainly working class, mainly male fans that the government were so scared of. Hooliganism was a big problem in the eighties and the solution they came up with was to get rid of the terraces, replace them seats and try to attract more women and families, in a “safe” sanitised environment.

The downside of this was that the working class fans were replaced by middle class “fair weather” fans, and the atmosphere went out the window. Prices sky rocketed and the singing stopped.

In the mean time, the hooliganism inside the grounds was for the most part eradicated, but only moved into the city centres and estates. Now it is no longer reported as football hooliganism, but as affray.

“We made a profit this year,” replied the manager.
What?
An extraordinary remark. When did a manager ever reply to a question like that with an answer like that?

That is fucking amazing, and just sums up the mindset and priorities for our manager, club profit = well paid contract, silverware/signings = lesser personal bank balance!

From a personal perspective, i don’t want anyone at the club who doesn’t have the best interests of the club and fans at heart, especially when that person or persons are running the club for personal financial gain.

Listen I was watching the Manu Spud game last weekend and SS flashed a banner saying Arshavin would be an Arsenal player with 48 hours, they didn’t come back on 48 hours later saying they fucked up did they?

Then last Saturday morning Livingstone said Arshavin was on a plane back to London to sign before the West Ham game, but they didn’t come on on Sunday and say they fucked up twice in one week did they?

I’ve just managed to get the snow off my sky dish to get a signal, and lo and behold sky sports news breaking news….. we offered half his current wages and the deal is off!!!! I aint suprised with anything involving this club anymore to be honest…It’s official, we’re a joke!!

This AA deal is getting should I say a little protracted.It’s like waiting for a coronation,if it was Messi i would understand all the fuss,quite frankly if we continue to do deals like this the famous club of arsenal will become a world wide joke.

9.47 Latest news on Arshavin. Sky Sports News reports he is heading back to a London airport with sources close to Arsenal claiming the Gunners are not prepared to meet Zenit’s terms. Sky Bet have moved quickly to reflect this latest development with him now rated as 6/4 to move to the Emirates.

maybe and I hope this is sky just making this farce as dramatic as poss , if this off and we get no one I am going to be so pissed off ! I have nt booked my Fulham and Blackburn games yet untill I see the result of today .